The internet is flooded with crazy adorable and functional ideas for decorating/setting up an elementary classroom! Every year I get the itch to try something new in terms of classroom flow, procedures, and decor but have difficulty finding  unique secondary ideas online. It is a catch 22 because the systems that always sound so appealing and flawless are the ones that become impossible to maintain by both myself and the kids. Additionally, intricate systems are so much more difficult to maintain with 150+ students than they are with 25. Below are my classroom set-up favorites that have proven to be the most successful for me over the past several years. Adopt any of these methods and I promise you will reduce some of that stress this school year!
1. EASY GRADE warm-up/exit tickets
I started using what I call “ATP PAPER” several years ago and now I can’t imagine how I ever held students accountable for their warm ups without it. ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) is how we refer to our “warm up” exercises in my biology class (because ATP is an energetic molecule…get it?) and student are given a new “ATP paper” every couple of weeks. Students have 5 minutes from the time the bell rings to sit down, get out their ATP, and complete the questions/prompts on the board with only the help of their personal notes. This is good for two reasons: 1) Students are ENTIRELY responsible for keeping track of their paper and completing the questions in the allotted time (all you have to do is prepare the questions on the board), and 2) this serves as accountability of note-taking. When the 5 minutes is up, students put their papers back in their folder. We go about our day and then during the last 5 minutes of class students retrieve their papers a second time for the “exit ticket” of the day. The AMAZING part about this method is the EASY GRADE aspect of it – all you have to do is collect the papers from the kids every couple of weeks (or whenever the paper is full) and enter it as a grade.
For me, this works better than any electronic method because it is accumulative (other than the single “snapshot” of scores) and it accurately represents several aspects of a students performance in class, as opposed to sporadically graded warm-ups. Additionally, there is NO excuse to not get it done when you aren’t using technology! A student who is often lazy when the bell rings will miss the opportunities to complete his bell work. A student who does not take adequate notes regularly will not have the resources to answer the prompts in the given time. I have found that the ATP scores are the best reflection of my student’s overall performance (behavior, comprehension, and work ethic) in class.
2. Blue Ticket Extra-credit System
I am not one to give out class-wide extra credit opportunities. My belief is that extra credit is an earned priviledge which is exactly why I have developed (and LOVED) this system. I purchased a spool of blue tickets off of amazon and reward them to students for positive actions. The main way that I use blue tickets is to encourage engagement during contests, activities, etc (because freshmen can be reluctant to participate). The blue ticket system allows me the flexibility to turn any activity, question, or lesson into a competition with the ticket as a prize and I notice an immediate spike in excitement and engagement as soon as the ticket is wagered.
What is the blue ticket worth? Well, it is the student’s choice! I’ve posted a photo of the sign that hangs in my classroom but below you can see the explanations behind them. Students have the option to redeem their ticket at any point in the semester for:
- Extra credit OPPORTUNITY (i have a handful of extra credit assignments available at all times in a special spot of my classroom – students staple their ticket to the assignment and submit for consideration)
- Select their seat for the day
- Excused late assignment
- Listen to music while working (because most times I don’t allow my classes to do this)
- Offer up an hour of their time to help me around my classroom in exchange for extra credit (don’t judge me)
-  **The options are endless and can be specific to your class and your needs!**
I LOVE this system because it is a great way to teach new high schoolers about creating their own opportunities. Want to waste your ticket on picking your seat one day? That’s your choice but I don’t feel bad for you when you are 1% away from an A. Didn’t earn a ticket this semester? Again, I don’t feel bad for you. You should have done something worthy of the opportunity to bring your grade up.
**Hint – I do not put a cap on the amount of tickets a student can earn (think commissions cap… I would be dumb to do that)  BUT I reward these tickets sparingly. It has to be  an EXCEPTIONAL act by a student (OR I have to be in a situation where the bribe of a ticket will get me out of a stale lesson ?).
3. Instagram Wall
While teenagers don’t necessarily gauk at cutesy decor the way they did when they were younger, I still like to incorporate a few elements around the room that make my classroom feel homey and welcoming. As a science teacher, I want more than anything to be able to take my kids to all of the amazing places in the world we spend the year learning about. Since I cannot do that, I try to open the world up to my kids through photos. I created the instagram wall 2 years ago and it has been my favorite element since. Basically, the wall is a place for myself and my students to “share” their experiences in the world with each other.
I have two basic rules for the instagram wall: 1) the photo must be a personal photo taken BY or OF you and 2) it MUST display something beautiful about the world. You can see my wall below – the photos are cut into small squares and show the kids that the world is amazing and accessible! I am always finding my students gathered at the wall and the added bonus is that the wall has sparked many wonderful conversations (not just about science and the world). This year, I plan to add a label under each new photo to allow students to caption their “posts” on the wall. Hopefully this modification will add even more personalization and appeal. Not quite the same as taking a  field trip, but enriching regardless ?! And while high school kids may be too cool for “show and tell”, they sure love to “share” online and the wall!
(^^PS – I know that “refrigerator” is spelt wrong – it’s sort of a running joke in my classroom. The “Refrigerator” wall existed before instagram became a thing – a place for kids to display things they were proud of. Same idea)
4. Green Shirts
Encouraging study habits and making test day exciting is a near impossible challenge, but I have found a system to engage students in preparing for (and remembering) test days. I have my amazing department head (Dr. Head) to thank in the development of this idea! The green shirt system really evolved throughout the year and I have so enjoyed making it work for my classes. At the beginning of the year, one of the supplies my kids are expected to get (along with a notebook/folder) is a green shirt. This can be an old shirt turned inside out that the student is willing to write on, or a $2 green colored shirt from walmart. Students are expected to have this shirt by the week of the first exam.
Here’s how it works: each section of the shirt is devoted to a specific unit of Biology and students spend the day before the test writing/drawing all over this section with notes/symbols related to the content (I let my general academic kids write AND draw but only allow my PreAP kids to draw pictures/symbols). Then, if students WEAR their green shirt on the test day they are permitted to use it during their test as a resource. The kids are reluctant at first, but you make it fun and goofy and offer prizes for the “most creative”, “smallest writing”, etc. the first time and the rest of the year it becomes the norm. I made the green shirt a daily grade the first time to encourage students to take it seriously and after this they were excited to keep it going.
Green shirt days occur on the day before each test (except district assessments) and we make them fun so that the kids look forward to them! I will bring in candy to give to the most creative shirts, allow them to listen to music that day while they write/decorate, and let them sit wherever they want so long as they work. This way, the shirts and days spent decorating become exciting! If a kid fails to bring the green shirt on this day they are left with a boring assignment and expected to work alone – this is another way I encourage participation. I always have a high percentage of kids wearing the shirts on test day because once they put the notes on it they want to make sure they have those notes to use on test day (without the shirt they will have no resource to use).  This system has increased engagement in test review, excitement in studying, and serves as way to make sure that nobody ever “forgets” that it’s test day!ÂÂ
One more benefit – IF a student performs poorly on a test and a parent/coach requests an explanation, it is an easy scapegoat. Typically, the students who do not perform well are the ones who were not responsible or motivated enough to prepare/use the green shirt. They had the opportunity to help themselves and chose not to. Maybe they will take advantage next time!
5. The Mailbox
This is my solution to organizing everything from assignment submissions, late work, extra credit, absent handouts, “burning questions”, and more. One of my biggest frustrations with teaching high school is feeling an unnecessary responsibility to keep high school kids up to speed if they are absent. I had tried “absent slips”, crates with labeled folders for handouts organized by unit, binders for unit and handouts, and the simple “come see me outside of class” if you are absent. Nothing relieved the pressure I felt with having several students absent everyday.
I first adopted this method to have a place to organize all of my extra handouts in a way that was easily accessible to students. I previously used crates and organized my handouts in Manila folders, but this required that I make a new folder each day and this did not ensure that students who came back from being absent understood which folders they needed to see. With the mailbox, I am able to simply slip my extra handouts in a slot for the appropriate day of the week (because if a student is gone for a day or two, they should not need to locate any assignments past a week old) . THEN, when a student returns, THEY DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO ASK ME WHAT WE DID YESTERDAY!! Hallelujah ??!!! They know to go directly to the mail slot for the day they were absent and grab the handout(s) found in there. The only time a student needs to see me is if they are confused about a handout/activity found in the slot. If the thing we did that day does not involve a handout, I simply write a brief explanation on a sticky note and place it in the slot instead. (For example – “Continued research for project xyz – should have 4 sources now” or “watched video titled ‘blah blah blah’ on YouTube and journaled thoughts about it in notebook – go to this link“, etc.)
I maintain this system by replacing the weekday handouts each time they roll back around. What do I do with the extra handouts once they become more than a week old? I place them in the red slot labeled “really old stuff”. Students know that by the time an assignment reaches this slot, it is not eligible for credit unless they had some sort of extended absence or circumstance. ALL of the old handouts remain in this red-labeled slot until the end of the unit when they become officially void and make their way to my filing crates of handouts. This has reduced my folder making from EVERY DAY to EVERY UNIT and is wonderful because I always have the time to organize the old handouts into folders when my students are taking their test.
In addition, I utilize the mailbox for assignment submission by class (separated into turn-in, late submissions, and graded for passback) and as a spot to keep extra credit handouts available for students to grab if they have a blue ticket. I even have a special spot devoted to the submission of blue-ticket work for consideration to keep random extra credit assignments from cluttering my desk and being forgotten about. This mailbox is a LIFE CHANGER. Try it and see for yourself. ???
IN CONCLUSION
One thing you may have noticed about my 5 favorite solutions is that none of them involve technology. HOW DARE I AVOID TECHNOLOGY IN SUCH TECHY WORLD? Well, I don’t. I LOVE technology in the classroom and try to embed it into my lessons almost every day! However, this is for another post. When it comes to my basic organizational and procedural systems I find that cold, hard, and “non-virtual” is the way to go. Reliable, visible, and excuse-free keeps my classroom running smoothly (or as smooth as possible with classes of 35+ freshmen). Now, take all of these (or none..) into your teacher work-day ready to refresh and re-vamp your classroom for the new year! FINALLY, don’t be afraid to make a switch and adopt one of these strategies a couple of weeks in – you will be glad you didn’t wait until the next year come December!
Happy Planning!
-Kelsie
